The company said net profit rose rose to £547m, while operating profit was up 18% at £750m ($1.12bn, €1.07bn).
Legal & General’s asset management arm, L&G Investment Management (LGIM), increased assets under management (AUM) by 12% during the period to £714bn, after winning big new investment mandates in the US, Japan, Taiwan and Korea.
“Internationally LGIM experienced strong net inflows of £5.4bn, primarily driven by growth in the US,” the company said in its results statement.
“A collective investment trust fund range was launched in June 2015, which is expected to appeal to the US market. In Asia and the Gulf, LGIM continues to strengthen relationships and expand its distribution, which resulted in healthy flows of £900m,” it said.
""The actions that we are taking allow us to focus on our chosen markets,"
Business disposals
Meanwhile the insurance giant said it was expanding its current efforts to sell off businesses around the world that it no longer sees as very profitable.
Following the disposal of Legal & General Ireland for £16m, the company said it has agreed to sell its business in Egypt for an estimated £34m.
It has also entered into agreements to sell its Gulf businesses and intends to dispose of its French and German operations in the near future.
“The actions that we are taking allow us to focus on our chosen markets, enable us to continue to deliver low prices and better value for our increasing customer base and deliver attractive returns for our shareholders,” said group chief executive Nigel Wilson.
L&G also said it expected the impact on the group’s cash and profits resulting from these transactions to be immaterial and would raise its interim dividend by 19%.
Pension de-risking
In the UK, L&G said the business was seeing strong demand from companies looking for help in managing their defined benefit (DB) pension plans.
L&G said in-house research indicated that almost two thirds of large defined benefit pension schemes in the UK are looking to take de-risking action, with almost half looking to do so over the next five years.
This so called “bulk annuities” business has helped offset a sharp drop in individual annuity policy sales which has happened since the government introduced new pension freedoms in April. Individual annuities sales fell 53% to £180m in the first half.
Meanwhile L&G said it was implementing cost savings across the business including through headcount reductions and a review of our UK and US locations and is track to deliver £80m in savings in 2015, with expected restructuring costs of £40m.
